Thursday, April 27, 2006

A new day brings us a nice new column!

Another Comics You Should Own column has appeared! Follow the link and read away - it's all about Detective Comics #471-476, the famed Steve Englehart/Marshall Rogers/Terry Austin issues, which of course brought us the best Batman girlfriend EVER! If you don't own these comics, find out why you should!

8 Comments:

Apparently the mini is now "Dark Detective II," and the original run is being dubbed "Dark Detective I" now with a "third" mini on the way. Which is rather a shame.

I will give the mini some credit, however, for presenting the best-written Joker I've seen since, well, probably JLA #15 by the God of All Comics.

And frankly, Marshall Rogers' art is still laden with loads of subtle details despite its cartonniness.

Dark Detective "II" is nowehere near the original run in 'Tec, nor much above average, but it did have some bright spots, especially considering the War Games/War Crimes/War on Quality Writing stuff in the main Batbooks around that time.

The only problem I had with the recent mini was that the ending was waaaaaay too rushed. In fact, about a week or so after I read the last issue, I think Fred Hembeck posted an IGN column about a conversation he had with Terry Austin, who said that DC cut it from 12 issues to 6 halfway through or something.

Steve Englehart hassaid that the Dark Detective mini-series was always meant to be 6 issues. Given the incredibly rushed ending to Dark Detective (now DD 2, apparently), I find that a bit hard to believe, but there you have it.

I've got that 'Tec with Deadshot on the cover. It was one of my earliest comics. Still a really sweet image. I oughtta frame it.

Nice series, Greg. Fun to read about stuff I'd (sometimes/almost) forgotten, and great to come across such in-depth essays. I just discovered the column via this site, another recent discovery which I love. Comics should be gud!

But Greg, Greg, Greg ... I am deeply distressed. I see you're churning out an alphabetical list of Comics You Should Own, and Animal Man's not on it. ** WTF?! **

Animal Man, which was written by The God of All Comics. Animal Man, which spawned "The Coyote Gospel." Animal Man, which gave us the tremendous new Mirror Master (that Scottish rogue with a heart) and a version of Vixen dripping with sexuality (but not in a tiresome T&A way). Animal Man, which had the audacity to openly celebrate the multiverse, the Inferior Five and the Gay Ghost. Animal Man, which mused about vegetarianism, animal rights, violence-as-entertainment, and theology. Animal Man, which made me cry (first time a comic's ever done that) and gave me more gooseflesh moments than a slaughterhouse full of fowl.

Yeah, I see Aztek made the list. Nice call, that — going for a less-obvious title. Still, no Animal Man?! Geez, if I had to pick between these two of God's children, I wouldn't hesitate for a second. Please explain yourself, Greg.

(Um, or not. You don't really owe me an explanation. I'd like one nonetheless.)

p.s. If The God's Doom Patrol is similarly snubbed, I'll wank off with a sigil to summon the Scissormen and the Candlemaker, and send 'em to teach you a lesson.

Ah, Rebis, of COURSE I wrote about Animal Man! I started doing these way back when on my own blog, and that's where you can find my thoughts on Animal Man. Then I moved over here and did a few, and only then did I move over to PCS. So only the ones I've looked at over there are listed. Come back in a week or so when the next column goes up and I'll list all the ones I written so far. Animal Man IS excellent. And there's no way in hell I would skip Doom Patrol.